MerhonourThe 'HMS' prefix was not used until the middle of the Eighteenth Century, but is sometimes applied retrospectively was a ship of the Navy Royal of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. She was built in 1590 by Mathew Baker

Mathew Baker

Mathew Baker was one of the most renowned Tudor shipwrights, and the first to put the practice of shipbuilding down on paper.The first list of 'Master Shipwrights' appointed 'by Patent' by Henry VIII of England included 'John Smyth, Robert Holborn, Richard Bull and James Baker,' in 1537...

 at Woolwich Dockyard

Woolwich Dockyard

Woolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard founded by King Henry VIII in 1512 to build his flagship Henri Grâce à Dieu , the largest ship of its day....

, and was rebuilt by Phineas Pett I

Phineas Pett

Phineas Pett was a shipwright and a member of the Pett dynasty.-Family background:Born at "Deptford Strond", he was the second son of Peter Pett of Deptford, his elder brother being named Joseph....

 at Woolwich between 1612 and 1615, being relaunched on 6 March 1615 as a 40-gun Royal Ship. She was then laid up at Chatham

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

, only briefly returning to service in the 1630s. She was nevertheless considered to be one of the fastest ships in the Navy.

Merhonour was sold out of the navy in 1650.